At this time of year, hope springs eternal as the aroma of baseball permeates the air. At ballparks across Florida and Arizona, the sound of sprinklers washing the field; the melodious thump of a baseball in a mitt, and the resonant crack of the bat have all emerged from hibernation, suffusing the atmosphere with its venerable pastime. Ken Korach is quite familiar with this environment as the Oakland Athletics radio play-by-play voice for the last 27 seasons but still enters each season with unwavering enthusiasm.
Ahead of the team’s spring training opener tomorrow against the Arizona Diamondbacks, Korach has focused on rekindling connections and learning more about the various new players. This offseason, the Athletics added reliever Trevor May, outfielder J.J. Bleday and infielder Aldemys Díaz, pairing with a burgeoning core of young talent with hopes of improving on a 102-loss season.
Most MLB 2023 season projections do not have the Athletics making the postseason, which, if proven correct, would extend the team’s championship drought to 34 years. Yet Korach, no matter what is happening on the field, will work to keep listeners engaged through vivid storytelling and comprehensive portrayals of the game. It is a lesson he learned growing up in Los Angeles, listening to Dodgers’ broadcaster Vin Scully, widely regarded as baseball’s poet laureate.
“From the first time I listened to Vin Scully do the Dodgers, I was always really intrigued and fascinated by it,” Korach said. “….When you went out to Dodgers games, you could almost hear him without bringing a radio.”
Korach attended baseball games early in his youth and gazed up at the press box, identifying it as a subliminal phenomenon he aspired to enter. Whether it was Scully, Dick Enberg, or Chick Hearn, he was an avid listener to local broadcasts and through them, became proficient in sports vernacular and knowledgeable about the teams. Additionally, his father was a physical education teacher and coach for high school and junior college basketball and baseball, giving him increased exposure from a different perspective.
Korach opted to attend college down I-5 at San Diego State University where he was a journalism major and sports editor of The Daily Aztec. Following two years, he transferred to the University of California, Santa Barbara; however, the school did not have a dedicated major in journalism. Instead, he studied social sciences and graduated, always thinking about pursuing broadcasting but cognizant of the reverence and immersion requited to attain any level of success.
Five years after his college graduation, Korach secured his first job in broadcasting at a local radio station in Petaluma, Calif. At the same time though, he worked a variety of different jobs to make ends meet, including at a golf club and clothing store. His role at the station pertained to more than just sports, as he hosted music programs, delivered news, and performed voiceovers in addition to exploring job openings in sports media.
By the mid-1980s, he was given a chance to broadcast approximately 27 games for the Redwood Pioneers baseball team in the California League. It is where he began to regularly spend time around the team and hone his craft – but a baseball career was never his primary focus. Instead, Korach sought to augment his versatility and continued working as a play-by-play announcer for football and basketball games at Sonoma State University. In fact, Korach continued calling college sports until 2004 – including at San José State University and UNLV – largely on the radio.
“I never focused on one over the other,” Korach said. “When I got into this, I really was focused on trying to get as good as I could in all three, and I’ll leave those judgments to other people.”
Korach advises young broadcasters to be able to broadcast multiple sports and show a willingness to adapt as opportunities become available. After continuing to broadcast baseball for the Phoenix Firebirds and Las Vegas Stars of the Pacific Coast League from 1986 to 1991, Korach received a call to the big leagues in 1992 with the Chicago White Sox. Although he was solely broadcasting weekend games, the chance to call games at the major league level was invaluable for Korach. He never aspired to call Major League Baseball games during his early years in the industry though, something he says may have been a “defensive mechanism.” Nonetheless, he continues to remain focused on the day-to-day aspects of the job to improve game after game.
“It’s a really subjective business, but the only things you can control are how hard you work and how professional you are,” Korach said. “Those are the things I tried to strive for back then, and then the most important thing was to try to learn to be the eyes and ears of the audience.”
The trial and error afforded to Korach in the minor leagues allowed him to make mistakes and enhance his storytelling ability, something especially important in calling baseball on the radio. Moreover, he fostered professional relationships with players, coaches, and other sources of information who, through conversation, divulge intelligence and anecdotes often imbued into the broadcast. It harkens back to Korach’s skills as a journalist in being able to identify the primary storyline and then using his broadcasting skills to catalyze both thought-provoking and spirited conversation.
Korach’s longevity and connection with baseball fans has largely been a result of his work ethic and passion for the sport; however, there was one particular broadcast partner who shaped his career. Bill King, a fixture over the airwaves in the Bay Area, longed to call Major League Baseball after spending many years calling games for the NFL’s Oakland Raiders and NBA’s Golden State Warriors. Over his career, King had established a style conducive to success and, through his indefatigable work ethic and efficient use of his time, broadcast all three Oakland-based teams for parts of three years.
Growing up in Los Angeles, Korach was able to listen to Warriors basketball games, listening to King articulate the spectacular feats of Wilt Chamberlain, Rick Barry, and Nate Thurmond en route to a championship 1974-75 season. Korach calls it “one of the great gifts” of his career to be able to work alongside a voice of his childhood in King. He went on to author a book about King titled “Holy Toledo,” named after his signature catchphrase.
“When I wrote my book about him, I tried to describe him in 270 pages and even that was hard,” Korach said. “He was just a tremendously passionate guy. He was governed by his passions; he lived life by his own terms…. You just knew that he was well-versed and that he was always prepared.”
King’s sports lexicon and linguistic command, along with external interests in opera, fine dining, and sailing, earned him the moniker of being a “Renaissance man.” His erudition and dogmatic propensity for knowledge made him an ideal broadcaster for a team once filled with superstars such as Jose Canseco, Mark McGwire, and Jeremy Giambi; and then discovering hidden gems en route to a 20-game winning streak in 2002. That period, referred to as the “Moneyball” era, was the impetus for a book and the creation of a movie based on the team.
King passed away in 2005 at 78 after suffering a pulmonary embolism following hip surgery, devastating Bay Area sports fans and leaving an open position in the broadcast booth. To begin the 2006 season, that spot was filled by Vince Cotroneo, and it has remained that way ever since.
Korach and Cotroneo were longtime friends before they began broadcasting games together, making the transition more facile for the duo to endure. Yet Korach estimates that stepping into a position occupied by a titan of the industry was difficult for Cotroneo in that Athletics fans had been long accustomed to hearing King. Furthermore, Korach had to make sure to stay within himself and remain genuine toward the audience in moving to the lead announcing role.
“We missed Bill every day and thought about him every day,” Korach said, “[but] I didn’t think about it as being that tough of a transition because I knew Vince and I would have a good chemistry right off the bat.”
As a radio play-by-play announcer, it is essential Korach continues to paint a picture of the action for the listener. Whether it is mentioning the handedness of a hitter; the positioning of the outfield; or the score and the count, making the game a “comfortable listen” is a recurring goal. Additionally, being able to effectively capture big moments and play to the crowd appropriates the recursivities embedded in an aural medium. Korach never wants people to say that the broadcast did not keep them accurately informed as to what was occurring on the field, nor does he want to convey a sense of apathy or inadequacy towards the team itself.
“I really want to open my mind to whatever happens on the field so it just flows and you’re immersed in the moment,” Korach said. “Then, try to use your voice, the emotion of the moment, and the drama and your inflection. I think that’s getting a little more technical, but that’s a big part of it.”
Arriving at the ballpark and taking in Major League Baseball games are motivating factors enough for Korach to prepare and perform his job at a high level. Every day, there is a chance Korach could see something historic or unprecedented ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous. Despite having the lowest average attendance in Major League Baseball last season, Oakland Athletics fans are vociferous and unabashed in their zeal toward the team. Sitting in the outfield at RingCentral Coliseum, they chant and play drums throughout the game often shouting “Let’s Go Oakland!” The team’s future in the locale, however, is very much up in the air.
For many years, the Athletics have been trying to build a new ballpark in Oakland, most recently unveiling a development plan on the waterfront at Howard Terminal. Although the plan received permission to commence from the waterfront commission, the organization has not yet secured the necessary approvals. Oakland mayor Libby Schaaf tweeted that residents want to come to a “win-win solution” with the team and that the Oakland City Council will protect taxpayers from costs associated with the ballpark and ancillary development.
Last month, Tim Kawakami of The Athletic reported that Major League Baseball is focused on helping the Athletics move to Las Vegas, Nev. without a relocation fee. Korach happens to keep an offseason home in the area and would continue broadcasting Athletics games if the team made the move, yet he hopes the team remains “Rooted in Oakland” with a new ballpark and maintains the two-team marketplace.
“I think when the Giants got their new ballpark, it was a little bit of a game-changer,” Korach said. “People forget that when the A’s moved in 1968 – of course the Giants got to San Francisco in 1958 – if you looked at all the years the Giants were at Candlestick Park and the A’s were at the Coliseum, the attendance was split right down the middle almost literally. It may have been the Giants had the biggest crowds one year and the A’s had the biggest crowds [in] the other.”
Korach remembers the time when the Athletics had a large payroll and nearly pushed the Giants away from the Bay Area. He also remembers the teams of the mid-2010s, which qualified for the postseason from 2012-2014 and 2018-2020, including players such as Josh Donaldson, Coco Crisp, and Dallas Braden (who threw a perfect game in May 2010). He knows the way for the Athletics to once again attract larger swaths of fans will be to build a new ballpark and leave the multipurpose-Coliseum.
Broadcasting for a team that plays its home games at a seemingly-anachronous stadium with attendance that plummeted to a 42-year low at the start of last season, some fans may naturally gravitate towards the San Francisco Giants or other teams. Combined with the American League’s worst record and the lowest payroll in baseball, fans outside of the area may view the situation as disquieting or untenable. Korach remembers Hank Greenwald, former television play-by-play announcer for the team, saying, “If you get down when your team isn’t playing well, you’re going to sound like [how] the team is playing, and you can’t allow that to happen.”
The people of Oakland though, according to Korach, embody a unique grit and spirit through which they continue to embrace the Athletics, and in turn, listen to the broadcasts. It was evinced in 2020 when the team dropped terrestrial radio broadcasts in favor of A’s Cast, a 24/7 audio stream of games and other Athletics content through the TuneIn app or the team’s official website. Six games into the abbreviated 2020 season, the team changed course, moving A’s Cast from TuneIn to iHeartRadio and signing a deal to air games on Bloomberg 960 KNEW-AM, a business talk station in Oakland.
“I think the most important thing for us is to blend the two, and understand that people are tuning to apps to listen to games or A’s Cast, which is 24 hours, and they do a tremendous job over there,” Korach said. “There are also people who prefer to listen to the games on the radio, and I think there’s still a place for AM radio for that.”
The amalgamation of terrestrial radio and streaming-based audio gives Athletics fans of all ages avenues through which to consume aural content. It also gives the team its own dedicated media outlet after Oakland Athletics team president Dave Kaval stated the team lacked “fair and balanced” coverage. The remark was made amid a Twitter interaction with 95.7 The Game afternoon host Damon Bruce, which began with Kaval pointing out low attendance at a Giants game and pondering if San Francisco media would comment on it.
Korach has always felt supported by the organization, never once being questioned for a comment over his 27 seasons with the team and having flexibility in his schedule. He enters the season in the final year of his contract and will broadcast 116 regular season games, largely in the western region of the league. While he intends to return to the organization next year, he recognizes the uncertainty of the future and looks to remain invested in the present moment.
“There’s no place I’d rather work than the Bay Area,” Korach said. “That may be one reason why I had a decent amount of success there because I moved there in 1979, [and] I have great love for the area. When you’re talking to people and trying to build that one-on-one relationship with the listener, these are the same people I’ve gone to games with and concerts with. You kind of think of them as your friends.”
In working among a team of people around a sport he grew up fervently consuming, Korach considers himself fortunate and appreciates the camaraderie within his job. Simultaneously, he thinks about the people who are alone or unable to attend games and tries to bring joy to their days through the broadcasts. Korach recalls that Chick Hearn, one of the announcers Korach listened to in his youth, frequently dedicated his broadcast to the “shut-ins.”
Being able to perform the job well comes with steadfastness towards the craft and intricate preparation through research and conversation. Every offseason, Korach adopts a project to work towards, and this year it was learning how to speak Spanish to cultivate a better rapport with players of Latin American descent. He acknowledges that he is “failing tremendously” at it and that it has been quite difficult, but he remains persistent in the endeavor.
Additionally, Korach and Cotroneo will welcome a new member of the broadcast team this season for the first time since 2006 with the addition of Johnny Doskow. As the longtime voice of the Sacramento River Cats (the Triple-A affiliate of the San Francisco Giants) since 2000, he will host pregame and postgame coverage, and also provide play-by-play for various games throughout Spring Training and the regular season.
Rule changes across Major League Baseball – which include limiting defensive shifts, enlarging the size of bases, and implementing a pitch clock – are meant to increase offense, prevent injuries and hasten the pace of play. Over the years, the league has tried to expand into a younger demographic and better market its superstars, part of the reason why changes in scheduling will result in the Athletics playing all of the other 29 franchises this year. It will be a challenge for the broadcasters in terms of preparation and in adapting perhaps a larger view of the league than in years past, but for the fans, it is yet another reason to consume the game.
“I’ve always kind of resented the fact that you work like crazy to prepare for a team for three games and then you don’t see them again for three years,” Korach said. “I’ve always really loved the games in your own league because you really start to get a great feel for those players and really understand their clubs and the tendencies and the managers. It was always a lot more comfortable to do games in your own league because you had such a better knowledge of the club.”
Due to advancements in technology and alacrity to pursue the craft, there are more opportunities than ever to explore a career in media. Even so, working hard, being professional, and remaining grounded in what one can control are established pillars that predicate success in the industry and traits Korach has demonstrated throughout his career.
When he steps into the ballpark though, Korach tries to remember his childhood and how he thought of the press box as being “magical.” Today, he calls it his workplace and the means through which he disseminates the sport and, in turn, helps keep the tradition of Oakland-based sports alive and well. Over the last five years, the area has lost the Warriors to nearby San Francisco and the Raiders to Las Vegas, and both teams play in new facilities (Chase Center and Allegiant Stadium, respectively).
Korach is an author as well, authoring several nonfiction books over the years about the Athletics and Bill King. He views the broadcast as a means through which to listen to a developing and dynamic story, nuanced in contrasting moments of halcyon and exigence, both of which can be blissful or anguishing in nature. Although broadcasters do not dictate the action, they are the ones describing and recounting it to listeners both in real time and during subsequent games or other programs. When history is made, it is their exclamations etched onto the soundtrack of summer, representing the disposition of the fans at large.
“In baseball, because of the everyday nature of it, especially when you’re broadcasting locally, you hope that people can kind of look at it as this great book that unfolds over the course of six months,” Korach said. “The chapters and the pages get turned every day, and if you’re really a fan of our team, the radio broadcasts are like turning the pages of a book.”
Derek Futterman is an associate editor and sports media reporter for Barrett Media. Additionally, he has worked in a broad array of roles in multimedia production – including on live game broadcasts and audiovisual platforms – and in digital content development and management. He previously interned for Paramount within Showtime Networks, wrote for the Long Island Herald and served as lead sports producer at NY2C. To get in touch, find him on X @derekfutterman.
